CSCOPE ~ Responding the the “Stakeholders”

It truly is amazing how blatant they are.

I was writing on WomenOnTheWall.org about how I was just as insulted as Colleen Vera was that we were not included with some of the heroes of the #StopCSCOPE movement Ginger Russell and her Mom Janice VanCleave in a power point presentation made for the CSCOPE State Conference in San Antonio. You can read about it here and sign on with myself and so many other Moms and Dads demanding that your name be included in the CSCOPE power point slide #8 as a critic opposing CSCOPE and the TESCCC. You can also email or contact Mason Moses and demand you be put on slide #8.

Mason MosesPublic Information OfficerTexas System of Education Service Centers

While looking through the power point presentation for this upcoming Summer Statewide CSCOPE Conference linked here>>.CSCOPE Intimidating Citizens. I came across slide #9 Why is Thomas Ratliff giving commentary on CSCOPE and defending it?

Adhere to district policy and guidelines for how CSCOPE content should or may be shared/displayed.

Adhere to the TESCCC DULA and Terms of Use by not

The key word being “Stakeholders”. Isn’t that an interesting choice of a word- “Stakeholder”? My friends over at Agendawise.com wrote a piece that I believe hits the nail on the head. Weston Hicks asks the question……

Why would CSCOPE be allowed to stay?

On what basis should CSCOPE receive political support from government officials to stay in Texas classrooms, and profit from Texas taxpayers?

CSCOPE has been exposed engaging in the worst educational malpractice possible.

With disregard for the rules in the State of Texas, CSCOPE brought curriculum into our children’s classrooms that:

Calls the Boston Tea Party a terrorist act,

Makes kids create a communist/socialist flag,

Christianity is called a cult, and treated as illegitimate,

Communism is placed at the top of the ladder of big ideas of the last 2 centuries, capitalism is at the bottom and socialism is in the middle,

Free Enterprise is framed as a selfish system

Islam is taught under the cover of “cultural understanding”

This is just a few things CSCOPE is guilty of. It is hard to imagine a higher level of educational malpractice or broken trust.

Action is currently being taken against CSCOPE, but so far “regulate them better” is the only message out there. Hopefully, the grassroots changes that soon.

What would it say to other bad actors trying to infiltrate our schools if mighty Texas can’t kick CSCOPE out of classrooms, and off of taxpayer bill?

The progress the grassroots has made against CSCOPE so far is great, but good things are never easy. The grassroots should stay involved to make sure the punishment fits the crime, and to make sure the punishment advertised is followed through on. Words guarantee very little these days.

Especially now, Texas needs to show that there is still a government somewhere that knows how to match a problem with the correct solution.

So who are the Stakeholders?

In another article by the team at Agendawise.com “Ruling class funtime (judges, and educrats, and ParentPACs, oh my!)I believethe money quote as my friend Adam Cahnman says is….. “Straus has done his part to ward off reform to the public education system in Texas, a system that is broken in one sense and high-performance in another. It is broken for the purposes of education, but it is lean, mean, and high performance as a political special interest juggernaut.”

That brings me back to the CSCOPE power point presentation and Thomas Ratliff who recorded a response to the critics of CSCOPE. You can listen to it here.

Ratliff is the son of former moderate Lt. Governor Bill Ratliff and brother of Freshman House of Representative Bennett Ratliff who it just so happens was named by moderate Speaker of the House Joe Straus to the 2013 Public Education Committee.

Ratliff is a registered lobbyist for Microsoft who sells to clients who do business with the Texas State Board of Education and with the Texas Education Agency, and was ruled by Attorney General Greg Abbott to be ineligible to serve on the SBOE.

The AG went even further and stated that because Ratliff is ineligible even to be on the SBOE, then Ratliff’s argument in which he says he can recuse himself from certain votes involving his clients is actually mute and void because Ratliff should not be on the SBOE in the first place.

So now the question becomes…. is it about educating Texas children or is it about a ruling class of special interest groups who are making millions of dollars off of our Tax dollars and taking money that should be going to hire good teachers who actually know how to educate children with solid Type 1 education and who know how to write a scope and sequence instead of depending on an ineffective curriculum like CSCOPE.

Here is a little financial information you may be interested in.

“CSCOPE: How Much Have Taxpayers Paid?”

Statement from Tom Fabry:

These two areas alone — $13 Million for CSCOPE and $30 Million for TASA/TASB — add up to more than $43 Million tax dollars – all going [each year] to unelected organizations outside the control of the SBOE.

Many of these are the same Texas school districts that have filed a lawsuit to force the Texas Legislature to give them more of our tax dollars.

Maybe that is why so many were working hard to try and prevent Barbara Cargill from fulfilling her postion as the Chairman of the SBOE.

Blessings are abundant though, Barbara Cargill stood strong and with a huge ground swell of support from the Grassroots I am happy to report that today the Full Senate approved Chairman Barbara Cargill.

I totally agree with Ms. Mac. Please email or call and send a message of congratulations and support to Chairman Barbara Cargill….

She is not paid. She works long hours.

She is often away from home.

She is carrying a huge load on her shoulders. She is dealing with unprecedented problems.

She is constantly being labeled or demonized because of her conservative views and her faith.

She needs to hear from us. Please forward this request to your members and urge them to take a minute out of their day to make

Barbara Cargill feel that she has an army of support watching her back.

Women On the Wall will be taking on this issue and sharing information and updates on our weekly radio show on Monday mornings at 10 am CST. You will not want to miss this show. We will have up to date information on CSCOPE and guests who are the experts on education and other issues that are effecting our children and grandchildren.